Professor Gary Middleton is a consultant medical oncologist focussed on lung and colorectal cancer, with a research interest in understanding and therapeutically targeting the tumour microenvironment.

Position:

Background and Research focus

Gary is a Medical Oncologist who specialises in lung cancer and colorectal cancer. He has years of experience in patient treatment, and also in development of novel clinical trials. Appointed to a chair of Medical Oncology at Birmingham in 2013, he is building up a strong clinical research programme in lung and colorectal cancer.

A key interest is in stratified approaches to patient treatment, and Gary has a strong presence in UK stratified medicine clinical trials. He is overall Chief Investigator for Matrix, a multi-centre, multi-arm, molecularly stratified clinical trial programme for UK patients with lung cancer. Gary is also a member of the trials management group and Chief Investigator for the BRAF arm of FOCUS4, a molecularly stratified multi-site, multi-arm, multi-stage randomised trials programme for UK patients with colorectal cancer. Synergising with this clinical focus on stratified treatment approaches, he is particularly interested in how the genetic/molecular phenotype of patients’ tumours correlates with the immunobiology of the tumour microenvironment.

Scientifically, Gary is focussed on understanding the tumour microenvironment and how this impacts on new therapeutic approaches, including novel immunotherapy strategies. One particular area of study is myeloid derived suppressor cells (MDSC), which are thought to suppress tumour-specific immune responses. He was recently awarded MRC Efficacy and Mechanism Evaluation funding to investigate the impact of the addition of Ruxolitinib, a STAT3 inhibitor, in mesothelioma. STAT3 inhibition targets MDSC populations in mesothelioma, and this is an area of active laboratory research, in which he collaborates with Dr Carmen De Santo and Dr Frank Mussai. He also collaborates with Dr Mark Cobbold and Professor Ben Willcox on tumour microenvironment-focussed work. In addition, he is co-lead for the immunobiology arm of TRACERx (Tracking Cancer Evolution through Therapy), a £14 million CRUK-funded study aiming to define how lung cancer develops spatially and temporally.

Other activities

In addition to leading his own clinical research group, Gary is a member of the NCRI Lung Cancer Clinical Studies Group, the advanced lung cancer sub-group, the advanced colorectal sub-group and the pancreatic sub-group. He is a member of the Cancer Research UK Clinical Trials Awards and Advisory Committee (CTAAC). He also holds advisory board membership for a number of drug companies, and is a member of the Cancer Immunology and Immunotherapy Centre’s advisory board.